The 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Oakland, California

Transcription

White Nativism and Urban Politics: The 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Oakland, California
Author(s): Chris Rhomberg
Source: Journal of American Ethnic History, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Winter, 1998), pp. 39-55
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Immigration & Ethnic History Society
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White Nativism and Urban Politics:
The 1920s Ku Klux Klan
in Oakland,
California
CHRIS RHOMBERG
a horde
in white
robes and masks
1,500 men
a
in
in
hills
the
above Oakland,
gathered
valley
across the sky, as a fiery cross
Two searchlights
beamed
California.
burned behind an altar draped with the American
flag. At a given signal,
500 more unmasked men marched
four abreast toward the altar, to take
5 MAY
ON
1922,
in silence
of
at night
their oaths and be initiated into the order of theKnights of theKu Klux
Klan.1
Hooded
Klansmen
from
as far away
San Jose and Los Angeles
mento,
Fresno,
brethren in the ceremony.
In the 1920s, the city of Oakland was
as San Francisco,
Sacra
came to join their Oakland
a center
in 1921, within
three years
members.
Local Klan
leaders
California.
Started
at least 2,000
late into the decade,
an election
led directly
to a major
the mid-twenties,
and Western
west
Inc., grew
J. Simmons, theKnights of
to an estimated
extending well
states, before
County
OF THE TWENTIES
Founded inAtlanta in 1915 by William
Klan,
district
attorney
and
justice) Earl Warren,
reform of the Oakland
charter.
city
THE KLAN MOVEMENT
the Ku Klux
in
activity
Klan grew to
success
political
enjoyed
for county sheriff in 1926 and
in a
broken
power was finally
winning
in 1927. Their
for city commissioner
trial
celebrated
graft
prosecuted
by Alameda
States Supreme Court chief
(and later United
the scandal
of Klan
the Oakland
beyond
three million
the Old
South
members
in
into the Mid
declining
rapidly by the end of the
it
of
Klan" portrayed
decade.2 Traditional
this
"Second
interpretations
as an irrational, backward-looking
extremist movement
of low status or
the last gasp of a dying rural and
individuals,
symbolizing
marginal
in the face of urban modernism
and a mass
small-town
Protestantism
have seen the growth
class.3 Recent years, however,
immigrant working
in the United
of a new historiography
of the 1920s era Ku Klux Klan
case studies have appeared
that question
States. A number of detailed
Journal of American
40
Ethnic History
/Winter
1998
about the Klan.4 As early as 1967, Kenneth
assumptions
was as much
an urban as a rural
showed
that the movement
the traditional
Jackson
Other studies have shown that the Klan were frequently
phenomenon.5
more successful where native white Protestants were a majority,
and not
or minority
a declining
resembled
the
group. Klan members
generally
in occupational
overall white male
status, with
relatively
population
collar and skilled workers
and less
among white
greater representation
among the very elite and the unskilled.
articulated prevailing white middle-class
in civic and electoral
Such
politics.6
the movement
often
Moreover,
values and participated
actively
that the Klan,
features
suggest
rather than a deviant
actor in
should be seen as a significant
aberration,
the urban political arena.
to this debate with a study of the 1920s Klan
This essay contributes
movement
in Oakland.
It begins with a review of contemporary
socio
economic
conditions
in the city,
the size
including
the
examines
population. Next,
study
the rise of white
nativism.
These will
Protestant
white
context
and
and impact of the Ku Klux Klan
organization
OAKLAND
and
status
of
the
the local political
the
help explain
in Oakland.
IN 1920
was
a rapidly maturing metropolis
on the
an
on
with
built
manufac
economy
Bay,
tures of capital goods, construction,
coastal trade and the processing
of
was
Oakland
the West
from the area's rural hinterland.
Coast
goods
terminus for three transcontinental
rail lines, and the Southern Pacific
In 1920, the city of Oakland
shore of San Francisco
eastern
was
major
yards. The
War
One,
and other
property
city also
and was
owner
and
experienced
fast becoming
in its huge West
Oakland
employer
a brief ship-building
in World
boom
a branch plant center for automobiles
industries.7
came population
In addi
economic
Alongside
development
growth.
to
of
Oakland
from
the
1906
San
Francisco
tion, migration
refugees
areas east of the city, brought
and annexation
of outlying
earthquake,
total city population from 66,960 in 1900 to 150,174 in 1910, to 216,261
1920.8 At
that time Oakland
this group was
was
but the
95 percent white,
of
In
whites
1910,
composition
"foreign
changing.
or native-born
stock" (foreign-born
of foreign or mixed
had
parents)
in the city. With
for 61 percent of all whites
of
accounted
the decline
in World War One and after, however,
of
native whites
immigration
by
almost
of
native
parents
in Oakland
grew
from 39 percent
of all whites
in 1910
to
41
Rhomberg
44 percent in 1920, and continued rising to 49 percent by 1930.9At the
same
total
of Roman Catholics
the city's
time, the proportion
among
in 1916 to 53.5 percent
in
fell from 68.4 percent
church membership
1926.10
industrial development,
the city as a whole was
Moreover,
despite
class. Commercial
and residential growth meant
becoming more middle
rose from 35 percent of
clerical and trade employment
that professional,
the city's working population in 1920 to 42 percent in 1930, while the
fell from 49 percent to 42 percent. Simi
employment
rates also increased: owner occupancy
increased
larly, homeownership
share of industrial
from 41 percent of Oakland homes in 1920 to 49 percent in 1930.11 In
short, the typical base of the Klan, native white Protestant middle
classes,
were hardly a declining
the data more closely
group in Oakland. Rather,
of a rising group, with a corresponding
in
fit a hypothesis
greater weight
the political
arena.
ETHNIC FORMATION AND URBAN POLITICS
in Oakland
were
around contending
urban
loosely organized
on
Alameda
boss
Michael
J.
factions,
County
("Mike")
in 1864, Kelly was appointed
Born
in West
county
Kelly.
Virginia
treasurer in 1906 and county tax collector
in 1919. A Catholic,
Kelly
Politics
centered
machine
rose to power by allying with Governor Hiram Johnson and the Republi
can progressives.
In 1921, he was named Superintendent
of the United
in San Francisco, with the aid of (now United
States Mint
States Sena
tor) Hiram Johnson.12
As in other American
pattern
provided
of ethnic
access
tied to the
cities, machine
politics was closely
and working
class formation.13 Patronage
and nepotism
to jobs and served as crude forms of social insurance,
ethnic group formation
and maintaining
corporate
loyalty
reinforcing
the
The latter were
concentrated
classes.14
among
dependent
working
in the old lower-income
Fourth and Sixth wards,
located near
especially
in the multi-racial
and ethnic West
the railroad yards and the waterfront
one of the oldest sections of the city.15
neighborhood,
over a city
In Oakland,
the popular Mayor
John L. Davie
presided
of streets,
of four commissioners
council composed
heading departments
revenue and finance, health and public safety, and public works.16 Elected
in alliance with the
in 1915, Davie won re-election
three times, usually
a
A
Davie
and
colorful
machine.17
vote-getter,
Kelly
figure
prodigious
Oakland
was
a master
of public
spectacle
and of the maneuverings
on the coun
42
Journal of American
latter were
cil. The
often
Ethnic History
/Winter
1998
as incumbent
commissioners
quickly
own
into
their
departments
political fiefdoms.18
The constant
and factionalism
in city hall, however,
under
logrolling
mined
the machine's
and
alienated
governing
ability
public opinion,
complex,
turned their administrative
the stage for popular
setting
opposition
AND WHITE NATIVISM
ANTI-MACHINISM
Anti-machine
sentiments
like the Alameda
County
to the machine.
were
groups
expressed
by good government
Its 1918 campaign
literature de
Federation.
has been in
clared, "For many years the 'MIKE KELLY MACHINE'
come
The bulk of its financial
control....
has
from the
support
always
the
the
and
the
'Red
saloons,
liquor interests,
gambling
joints,
Light
District.'
It has consistently
in the Legisla
fought every DRY measure
candidates
for County
and State of
ture, and is now supporting WET
in an endeavor
fices
to save
everything
for
the saloon"
in
[emphasis
original].19
As the above
often found close
shows, anti-machine
progressivism
The latter incorporated Protestant middle
company with prohibitionism.
class prejudice
ethnic and especially
Catholic mor
against lower-class
as
as
a
test
well
of
of
the
als,
providing
key
probity
public officials.20
Postwar
November
also merged
patriotism
easily
1921 issue of the Oakland
"published
forcement
in the interests
into xenophobia
and bigotry. The
a monthly
Crusader,
magazine
of American
and Ideals, Law En
Principles
as follows:
editorialized
"The
Reform,"
as
a
to the United
States is
serious
problem of immigration
problem for
are the same....
this country as Irish ascendancy.
The dangers
The
more we get of Southern
Ireland and Southern Europe
the quicker
the
control
and Social
of the United
and Moral
States will
pass into their hands."21
These values
had an impact on mainstream
The Oakland
politics.
are
wrote
of
schools
in
thousands
of men
"There
1920,
superintendent
or
the English
in Oakland who, without
of
citizen
knowledge
language,
ship, are sources of greatest danger to our government."
Shortly before
J.H.
for Congress
in 1922, insurance salesman
campaign
was
as
touted
in the defense and perpetuation
"[a believer]
MacLafferty
... he
of American
ideals as they were handed down by our forefathers
stresses the need of protecting
the Government
from its enemies within?
his
successful
the 'reds'?and
the enemies
without?the
antagonism
was
Japanese.
Americanism
is his
creed."22
Anti-machine
perhaps
greatest
in East Oakland.
Only
43
Rhomberg
in 1909, East Oakland
residents were distant from the
factions based in the older and more
diverse West
political
ethnically
Oakland.23 At the same time, East Oakland was the most rapidly grow
annexed
recently
ing area
in the city. By
the end of the decade,
the population
of East
Oakland (Brooklyn Township) nearly doubled from 1920, surpassing
that of the rest of the city.24 This swelling population
a substantial part of the potential
Oakland
electorate
for
ground
political entrepreneurs.
Boomtown
conditions
also
growth made East
and a competitive
led to mounting
like sewers
against city
grievances
and street paving, prime
authorities, particularly
sources of patronage
for the machine.
Such complaints were often di
rected against Commissioner
of Streets William
Baccus, himself a build
over services
ing contractor
in 1903 from
veteran
and a twenty-two-year
the old machine
Sixth Ward
of the council, first elected
In one
Oakland.25
inWest
in 1925, members
of the 13th Avenue
Club in
instance,
Improvement
on their street,
East Oakland
claimed contractor overcharges
of $16,000
which
after completion.
allegedly
began cracking up only three months
and when
initiated
the council
an unsuccessful
recall petition against Commissioner
Baccus.26
saw the emergence
the twenties
of a rising
Protestant middle
class in Oakland,
parts of which
the decade
Overall,
white
native-born
remained
institutions.
city
and got an investigation
by the City Council,
ruled
the
the club
residents,
ultimately
against
demanded
Club members
of
in or alienated
from the city's political
incorporated
concerns
such as moral reform, law enforcement,
and
this
conflict
with
established
ethnic
into
group
brought
weakly
Civic
services
The prevalence
of nativist
power in the urban machine.
ideology
a
in
frame
these
ethnic
and
issues
racial
and
terms,
provided
helped
of a white nativist movement.
fertile ground for the development
group
THE KU KLUX KLAN IN OAKLAND,
1921-1925
and R.M. Carruthers of the
1921, organizers W.G. McRae
By August
in downtown
Ku
of
the
Klux
had
Inc.,
Klan,
Knights
opened an office
as
the
other
Klan
Oakland. Among
agents promoted
organization
things,
a patriotic fraternal society, committed
to "keep closer check upon pub
to prevent "laxity in the discharging
of the duties of public
lic officials,"
of cases involving
and to "fix its attention on the prosecution
offices,"
in January
Oakland Kl?n No. 9 was chartered
the honor of women."27
were
to
witness
and
in
March
1,000
1922,
reporters
secretly
brought
masked
members
initiate 200 more
in the rural Contra
Costa
hills
north
Journal of American
44
Ethnic History
/Winter
of the city. A week
later, journalists were again invited to watch
in full regalia performed
Klansmen
funeral services for a deceased
1998
as six
mem
ber at a local crematorium.28
in the California Klan was interrupted in the summer of 1922,
Los Angeles
District Attorney
Thomas Lee Woolwine
raided Klan
re
there and uncovered membership
lists for the entire Pacific
offices
to district attorneys
lists were
circulated
the
gion. These
throughout
Growth
when
state, and the resulting publicity
brought reaction against the order and
mass defections
In Oakland,
of exposed members.
the city council unani
an
to ban masking
in public. Yet, although
the
ordinance
passed
mously
names of fifty Oakland
some
current
and
former
residents
(including
city police) were
ney Ezra DeCoto
Oakland
Klan
reportedly on the list, Alameda
County District
never released
the names,
and the scandal
seemingly unscathed.29
in Oakland
the contrary, Klan activity
ber elections
that fall. The state Governor's
On
dry Republican
District Attorney
lic Democrat.
comment
candidate
during
week,
with
the
the Novem
race pitted the conservative
from Berkeley,
Richardson,
against
the Klan's hated adversary
Woolwine,
The state KKK
endorsed Richardson,
Woolwine
stage
Friend
escalated
Attor
left
and a wet Catho
who
to
refused
on his alleged
the campaign
ties to the order.30 When
a band of Klansmen
in Oakland
in October
rushed the
spoke
and tried to place a Klan
a Klan rally at the Oakland
The following
image on the platform.
featured one speaker who
Auditorium
if we are to remove
"The election of Richardson
is imperative
declared,
and Negroes
in
the Jews, Catholics
from public
Anti
life
California."
also played a role in local contests, especially
the campaign
Catholicism
Police
Edward
the city with
flooded
against
Judge
Tyrrell. Opponents
to "Catholi
candidates
literature endorsing
purportedly
seeking
phony
a
names
cize America,"
and signed with false
Catholic
orga
suggesting
nization.31 Tyrrell survived the challenge to his re-election, but Richardson
won an overwhelming
to become
statewide majority
the new Governor.
as
a
the
functioned
Klan
semi-official
group, ac
Locally,
vigilante
a
on
as
secret
federal agents
fraternal
raids, and
prohibition
companying
society,
at a time when
grassroots
political
tary) Ed L. Arnest
fraternal
societies
were
a common
In 1923, Klan No.
organization.32
and Exalted Cyclops
for city commissioner
vehicle
of
9 Kligrapp
(Secre
C. Francis ran
(President) Leon
and school board, respectively.
fields in both races, Arnest won 9 percent and Francis
18 percent of the vote.33 By 1924, Klan No. 9 had at least 2,000 mem
a following
of many
thousands more. That summer,
bers and claimed
in the primaries
crowded
Despite
45
Rhomberg
organizers
planned
a statewide
in Oakland
convention
and
secured
a
parade permit from the city for the Fourth of July. Citing the threat of
Commissioner
of Health
and Public
however,
Safety Frank
the permit. Hundreds
later revoked
and
of Klan members
a
at
council
but
firm.
Colbourn
remained
supporters protested
hearing,
to the nearby city of Rich
The convention
and parade were relocated
a reported 3,000 Klansmen
on July 4, followed
marched
mond, where
violence,
Colbourn
by an evening
initiation
in the El Cerrito
Newspaper,
local Klansmen
civil
case
ceremony
and criminal
records
hills.34
the names
reveal
of 69
of whom
58 were
identifiable
through city
sources.
a
not
directory
Although
sample, these
representative
some of the most
and their
included
and
active
members,
prominent
are
characteristics
included Protestant church
suggestive.35 Klan members
in Oakland,
and other
and salesmen,
small businessmen,
skilled
men,
managers
professionals,
of the Oakland Fire Department,
and even
blue-collar workers, members
for 49 per
the son of a congressman.
data were available
Household
sons; of these 41 (84 percent) lived in households, and 8 (16 percent)
roomers or boarders. Fifty of the known Klansmen
lived in Oak
with
the
in
remainder
Piedmont
land,
(an affluent
residing
Berkeley,
or
more
enclave
in
the
Oakland
suburban
distant suburbs. Among
hills),
were
Oakland residents, 29 (58 percent) lived inEast Oakland, 8(16 percent)
lived inNorth Oakland, and 13 (26 percent) lived inDowntown orWest
lived in
only 22 percent of the known Klansmen
more
the older neighborhood
of West Oakland, while
than three-quar
ters lived in the outer areas of the city or the suburbs.
Oakland.36
Altogether,
data are consistent
These
socioeconomic
base
with
other
case
studies
that show
of Klan
a broad
in
Moreover,
membership.
strength
does not appear to have been concentrated
among residents of
older or ethnically
but rather in the
changing neighborhoods,
Oakland
declining
newer, more homogeneous
ascendant group, asserting
Klan
middle-class
itself
areas.37 This
independently
in the Oakland population.
changes
As late as October
1924, the Oakland Klan
of
initiations
50 or more
recruits.
group
ing
fact
and reflecting
an
suggests
the overall
to grow, hold
the
end
of the year,
By
the Atlanta-based
national Klan over its
continued
tensions erupted with
however,
efforts to impose greater control over the California
realm. At a meeting
on 28 November
some
500 members
of Klan No. 9 unanimously
1924,
the authority of Imperial repre
passed a resolution
refusing to recognize
sentative
acting
G.W.
Price
and asking for his
Hiram Evans,
for Imperial Wizard
removal.
suspended
next day, Price,
the charter of Klan
The
Journal of American
46
Ethnic History
/Winter
1998
filed suit to
9, and the following
January the parent corporation
recover assets and rights to its name. Klan No. 9 remained active through
its property was seized as part of the protracted
1925, when
litiga
April
No.
won all of its legal battles
tion. Although
Klan No. 9 eventually
(its
was
on
ruled
its resources were
illegal
procedural
grounds)
suspension
exhausted
and the organization
effectively
disintegrated.38
not the end of the Klan movement.
this was apparently
However,
the Klan No. 9 leaders had transferred
their suspension,
their
Before
a
to
called
Inc.
Some
funds
East Bay Club,
group's
parallel organization
J.F. DeBorde
and Charles
months
earlier, Southern California Klansmen
a rival corporation
under the laws of the state of
Hayes had organized
Inc.
called the Invisible Empire Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan,
Nevada
the end of 1924 and into 1925, Klan No. 9 leaders collaborated
Through
with DeBorde
in recruiting
and Hayes
their members
In February
Klan.
and others
to join the Nevada
a Cali
organized
1925, DeBorde,
Hayes
called the White
Cross Clan, and
corporation
charter was granted to Oakland Clan No. 9 of theWhite
fornia
this time there were
9 in Oakland,
1925, in a show
No.
a
1925
in May
Cross Clan. By
at least three organizations
known as Klan (or Clan)
as well as the East Bay Club.39 Finally,
in August
the
national
Great
Titan
T.S.
of strength by
order,
an initiation
into the apparently
loyal Oak
in the Oakland
ceremony was conducted
and their support
attended by 8,500 klansmen
and women
Auditorium,
a
and
band
from
the
Oakland
ers, and featured
organization
75-piece
of the Ku Klux
and Women
drill teams from the national Klavaliers
held
Moodie
land Klan
Nos.
of 500 "aliens"
1 and 3. The
Klan.40
the decline or proliferation
this signified
is unclear, as the fate of the other klaverns
the Oakland movement
its internal struggles
Whether
nization
of local Klan
orga
is not known.
apparently
Yet,
suffered
despite
on the contrary, hundreds of spectators packed
no public discredit;
the
to show their support.41 Moreover,
Oakland Klan
civil case hearings
ties to
with numerous
active political
leaders remained
entrepreneurs,
of
other civic, fraternal and political activities. Leon C. Francis, Cyclops
of the East Bay Club, and vice-president
of the
Klan No. 9, president
state White
and
Legion,
Fred Haase
ment
effort
officers
the American
of the Masons,
Clan, was a member
state
the
central
Klansman
committee.42
later,
Republican
testified as an expert witness
for the 13th Avenue
Improve
Cross
in their paving
against Commissioner
Club
Andrew
Brooks,
controversy
of Streets
Danver
in the recall
and participated
along with Klan No. 9
Baccus,
MacGregor
and J.H. MacLafferty,
Jr.
47
Rhomberg
J.H. MacLafferty).43
Haase was also active in the
(son of Congressman
Nevada
and CD.
Klan, as were Jack Garbutt,
Tudor, who had worked
on Francis's
1923 school board campaign.
In the 1925 city elections,
as a delegate
to the Better
for the Knights
of Pythias
a
Government
coalition
of civic and improvement
clubs that
League,
included the East Bay Club.44
The most successful Klan politicians were Burton F. Becker and Wil
Garbutt
served
liam H. Parker, Kailiff
and Kleopard
(lecturer) of Klan
(vice-president)
was
No. 9, respectively.45
Becker
the popular chief of police of Pied
to the Moose,
and belonged
of America,
the Modern Woodmen
mont,
and several Masonic
ance
orders.
Parker was
a self-made
realtor
and
insur
in the prosperous
Dimond
district of East Oakland. Ac
tive in the Dimond
Club, Parker edited a monthly
Progressive
neighbor
and was first president
of the East Oakland
Consoli
hood newspaper
salesman
of some thirty neighborhood
dated Clubs, an association
improvement
to "questions
of paving,
clubs dedicated
sewage, new park sites, trans
lighting and other civic improvements."46
portation,
its internal difficulties,
then, the vitality of the Oakland Klan's
Despite
of its active
and the legitimacy
influence. The extent to which
popular base,
the movement's
framed
Klan
in ethnic
leaders were
stream.
and nativist
able
to cross
to sustain
leaders, helped
civic issues were already
the ease with
which
into the political
success would
come
main
terms underscores
over
the movement's
and enter
Indeed,
greatest
as County
latter half of the decade, with the election of Becker
of Streets in 1927.
in 1926 and Parker as City Commissioner
KLANSMEN
The
electoral
and material
victories
of Becker
issues that motivated
in the
Sheriff
IN POWER
and Parker
the Klan movement
the moral
epitomized
in Oakland. Becker
was already publicly identified with theKlan in 1922 when he ran for
over 23,000 votes, or about 34 percent, against
sheriff, winning
long
Barnet was
Frank Barnet.47 An ally of Mike Kelly,
time incumbent
sheriff with a tolerant attitude
known as a traditional, patrimonial-style
in the
he was implicated
and vice.48 In 1925, however,
woman
a
had
blackmailed
who
of
young
gruesome
allegedly
into believing
several prominent men of the county (including Barnet)
no
to
their
child.
she had given birth
charges were
Although
illegitimate
toward
alcohol
murder
and destroyed
filed, the scandal was widely publicized
career. In their rematch the following
year, Kelly was
Barnet's
forced
political
to abandon
Journal of American
48
Ethnic History
/Winter
1998
and support Becker, who won easily as a modern,
professional,
reformist candidate. Upon
immediately
appointed
taking office, Becker
Leon C. Francis as county
and fellow Klansman
Parker as under-sheriff
Barnet
jailor.49
A few months
Commissioners
and
later, the 1927 city council races put Mayor Davie
Davie
for
Baccus and William Moorehead
reelection.
up
in the primary to
and won a clear majority
ties with Kelly
for
while Parker ran independently
retain his mayoralty,
against Baccus
hard on the street paving
seat.50 Campaigning
the commissioner's
issue,
H.T.
in the primary
Baccus
and led runner-up
eliminated
Parker
an opportunity
to win a new
into the final. Seeing
going
Hempstead
and to recapture city patronage, Kelly and Davie backed
council majority
renewed
Parker
sioner
his
and challenger Charles Young
support from Kelly
spots. With
for the two commis
and with Parker's own
and Davie,
Parker
club base in East Oakland,
in the runoffs
and neighborhood
improvement
and Young were swept into office.51
short lived.
and the Klan
leaders was
The alliance between Kelly
more
even
to
be
Klan
in power,
Once
opportunistic
proved
politicians
On the city council, Parker broke
and corrupt than their predecessors.
Klan
with
Davie
Parker
faction with Commissioners
his own majority
and
Jack Garbutt
Fred
Klansmen
Haase,
Sturgis.
his
election
after
and
in
active
Parker's campaign,
and formed
and Eugene
Young
E.Q. Norman were
hired Garbutt
surveillance
and Norman
on
as "special
to conduct
investigators"
later
and Norman
Garbutt
city employees.52
and agreed to
in a street paving business
partners with Haase
their
contracts
cent
for
foot
per square
specifying
pay Parker one-half
included over 800,000
Such contracts
subsequently
paving.
patented
in the city.53
or
street
work
all
of
one-third
square feet,
paving
political
became
an aggressive
established
In the county, Sheriff Becker
system of
Sheriffs
and
deputies
gambling.
bribery and extortion from bootlegging
from still operators
thousands of dollars of protection money
collected
a plan to rationalize
in rural southern Alameda
County and developed
less
and
smaller
the bootlegging
profitable produc
industry by arresting
in a single designated
ers and centralizing
both supply and payoffs
the attor
men also arranged with Cromwell
source. Becker's
Ormsby,
raids in
to tip off impending
ney for several Chinese
lottery operators,
later conspired with Garbutt and Norman
for payments. Ormsby
exchange
Police Morals
to influence
the Oakland
in an attempt
Squad, while
for the pro
Mills
the
from
received
Garbutt
$5,000
Company
Novelty
tection of slot machines.54
49
Rhomberg
con
leaders' corruption quickly alienated
their middle-class
cause
to
In
the
Lions
and
alarm.
1928,
began
stituency
public
February
a meeting
of business,
civic and improvement
clubs to
Club convened
The Klan
a charter
launch
Manager
Harry
reform
was
League
The
Harding.
and by April
the Oakland
Council
campaign,
led
local
banker
Lions
and
formed,
by
president
to create a more efficient
reformers promised
city
on
with a strong city manager
administration,
system modeled
explicitly
the private corporation. However,
the city council was able to stall the
on the ballot, and the issue re
efforts to place the question
League's
over
a
tied up in litigation for
mained
year.55
in January
Earl Warren
1930, District Attorney
Meanwhile,
the
and
in
Hall
and
the Sheriffs
graft
pursuing
corruption
City
began
office.
Even at this time, Klan legitimacy in Oakland was high enough that
Warren
refuse
Warren
on the Alameda
that Klan members
feared
would
to indict fellow Klansmen.56
transcripts of the Grand
resulted in the swift resignations
released
and the publicity
Commissioners
Parker,
and others were
Ormsby
and the scandal
County Grand Jury
In an effort to break the case,
to the press,
Jury investigations
Young
and
of Sheriff
Becker
and
Sturgis. Becker,
indicted, convicted
eventually
turned public opinion
Parker, Garbutt,
and sent to prison,
against the commis
increasingly
sion form of government.57
to editorialize
The Oakland
in favor of the
Tribune began
heavily
and
with
the
the
of
Chamber
of Com
Lions,
reform,
manager
support
the
Protestant
Ministerial
the
and
other
Council
merce,
Union,
groups,
on a charter amend
35,000
signatures
effort to save the old machine, Mayor Davie
to draft their own strong
called a Freeholders'
election
labor
ethnic organizations
charter, supported by
unions,
obtained
Manager
League
ment petition.58
In a final
and his
allies
mayor-council
and machine-favored
over
In the November
both
elections,
and the City Hall Freeholder
slate were victo
rious. The Freeholders
submitted
their charter in March
1931, but by
to mobilize
had lost its capacity
its base. Middle
this time the machine
the manager
businessmen.59
amendments
turned out heavily
slate
League
Council-Manager
class
voters
charter
to reject it and
in the first new
later elected
council
Knowland,
The
the end of popular machine
in Oakland.
politics
under
the
of
Tribune
elites,
publisher
Joseph
leadership
thereafter assumed
leading influence over city hall.60
reform marked
Business
the entire
elections.
Journal of American
50
Ethnic History
/Winter
1998
THE LEGACY OF THE KLAN
body
study adds to the developing
In Oakland,
States.
in the United
This
1920s
anti-machine
made
that was
of the
a rising
mobilized
the Klan
system
population
against an established
on
leaders capitalized
and machine
politics. Klan
de
and on specific material
and anti-ethnic
ideologies
an
form
middle-class
residents,
organizational
by
using
white, middle-class
of ethnic patronage
mands
on the Klan
of research
both
Protestant
to their followers
familiar
a critical
and ultimately
source
of weakness.
shed some light on the interpretive debate surrounding
These findings
In Oakland, white middle-class
Protestants were not a
the movement.
a
them
and
the
issues
that concerned
but
group
rising one,
declining
as
nor
were neither backward
but
anti-modern,
contemporary
looking
as well-paved
streets. Yet,
the point
is not whether
or with
more
ethnic
with
civic problems
concerned
concerns
to
extent
law
the
which
like
but
good government,
prejudice,
enforcement
and city services could be framed in ethnic terms, and the
and mundane
Klansmen
were
ease with which
Klan
political
entrepreneurs
crossed
over
into the main
stream.
the Oakland Klan's
Similarly,
base nor
of its socio-economic
demise
was
due neither
to the decline
to its ideological marginalism.
Rather,
form of the secret fraternal society proved insufficient
the organizational
to hold the movement
Klan
leaders suc
and opportunistic
together,
to
of machine
the corruptions
cumbed
politics. The defeat of the Klan,
did not necessarily
hinder the agenda of white middle-class
however,
as a group. The latter transferred
from the
Protestants
their allegiance
more
to
the
reformers
vehicle
of
the
Klan
effective
anti-machine
faulty
elite. The crisis of Klan
leaders' fall led to a deci
among the business
or
in victory
in the city's political
institutions. Whether
sive change
an
movement
in
the
Klan
left
Oakland.
defeat,
enduring
legacy
NOTES
1. Oakland
Post
Enquirer,
6 May
1922;
San Francisco
Examiner,
1 May
1922.
2. David Chalmers, Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux
Klan (New York, 1965), p. 119.
3. Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform: From Bryan toFDR (1955; reprint,
ed., New York, 1977), p. 291; Arnold Rice, The Ku Klux Klan inAmerican Politics
(New York, 1972), p. 13; George Mowry and Blaine Brownell, The Urban Nation:
1920-1980, Revised Edition (New York, 1981), p. 31; Seymour M. Lipset and Earl
51
Rhomberg
Raab, The Politics of Unreason:
(New York, 1970), p. 114.
4.
For
review
see
essays,
in America,
Right-Wing Extremism
Leonard
"Historical
Moore,
1790-1970
the
of
Interpretations
1920's Klan: The Traditional View and the Populist Revision," Journal of Social
History, 24 (Winter, 1990): 341-357; and Stanley Coben, "Ordinary White Protes
tants: The KKKof the 1920s," Journal of Social History, 28 (Fall, 1994): 157-165.
5. Kenneth Jackson, The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915-1930
(New York,
1967).
6. Shawn Lay, Hooded Knights on the Niagara: The Ku Klux Klan in Buffalo,
New York (New York, 1995); Shawn Lay, ed., The Invisible Empire in the West
(Urbana, 111., 1992); Kathleen Blee, Women of theKlan: Racism and Gender in the
1920s (Berkeley, 1991), pp. 154-173; Leonard Moore, Citizen Klansmen: The Ku
Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1991); William Jenkins, Steel
Valley Klan: The Ku Klux Klan in Ohio's Mahoning Valley (Kent, Ohio, 1991);
Robert Goldberg, Hooded Empire: The Ku Klux Klan inColorado (Urbana, 111.,1981).
7. John Dykstra, "A History of the Physical Development of the City of Oak
land: The Formative Years, 1850-1930," (unpublished Ph.D diss., University of
California, Berkeley, 1952), p. 192; E. T. H. Bunje, "Oakland Industries, 1848
1938," Oakland: Works Progress Administration, 1939.
8. Dallas
"An
Smythe,
Economic
of Local
History
and
Interurban
Transporta
tion in the East Bay Cities with Particular Reference to the Properties Developed by
F. M. Smith,"(Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1939), pp. 130-132.
Beth Bagwell, Oakland: Story of a City (Oakland, 1994) pp. 175-179; U.S., Bureau
of the Census, Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910: Vol. I, Reports by
States: Supplement for California (Washington, D.C., 1913) p. 582; Abstract of
Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920 (Washington, D.C., 1923) p. 108.
9. U.S., Bureau of the Census, Abstract of the Thirteenth Census of the United
States, 1910 (Washington, D.C., 1913) p. 95; Abstract of Fourteenth Census of the
United States: 1920 (Washington, D.C., 1923) p. 109; Abstract of Fifteenth Census
of the United States: 1930 (Washington, D.C., 1933), p. 100.
10. U.S.,
Bureau
of
Census
the Census,
Bodies,
of Religious
1916,
Part
One:
Summary and General Tables (Washington, D.C., 1919) p. 126; U.S. Bureau of the
Census, Census of Religious Bodies, 1926, Vol. One: Summary and Detailed Tables
(Washington, D.C., 1930) p. 496.
11.
"Industrial
manufacturing"
here
includes
See U.S.,
Bureau
employment"
occupations.
and
transportation
of the Census,
and
"mechanical
Fourteenth
Census
of
the United States, 1920: Population, Vol. IV: Occupations (Washington, D.C., 1923)
pp. 1185-1188; U.S., Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States,
1930: Population, Vol. IV: Occupations (Washington, D.C., 1933; pp. 202-216;
U.S.,
Bureau
of
the Census,
tion, Vol. VI: Families
12.
John
F. Mullins,
Census
Fifteenth
(Washington, D.C.,
"How
of
the United
States:
1930?Popula
1933), p. 57.
Earl Warren
District
Became
an
Attorney,"
oral
history conducted in 1963 by Amelia Fry, in Perspectives on the Alameda County
District Attorney's Office, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley, 1972, pp. 2-8; Hiram Johnson toMajor Archibald
13 July 1931, and Hiram
Johnson
Johnson,
in The Diary
Letters
Johnson,
of Hiram
Past
and Present
York,
1983);
Joseph Baker,
(Chicago,
Enquirer,
state and
1914) p. 369; Oakland
20 November
federal
jobs
1940.
In
in the county.
to Hiram
County,
Tribune, 20 November
1923,
it was
Observer,
15 January
E. Burke
Johnson,
Jr.,
ed. Robert
1917-1945,
of Alameda
estimated
12 August
California,
1933,
New
2
vol.
1940; Oakland Post
there were
1923.
more
than
500
52 Journal of American
Ethnic History
/Winter
1998
13. Steven Erie, Rainbow's End: Irish Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban
Machine Politics, 1840-1985 (Berkeley, 1988), p. 13.
14. Interview with Donald Mockel, an oral history conducted in 1981 by Sally
Thomas and Padraigin McGillicuddy, Oakland Neighborhood History Project, Oak
land History Room, Public Library, Oakland, California.
15.
Judith
May,
brary, University
and
"Progressives
and Council-Manager
Commission
the Poor,"
Environmental
ms.,
Li
Design
1970, pp. 2, 10; Steven Blutza, "Oakland's
of California, Berkeley,
Plans?Causes
and Consequences"
diss.,
(Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley, 1978), pp. 7-14; California Department of Trans
portation, Historic Property Survey Report: For the Proposed 1-880 Reconstruction
Project (San Francisco, 1990); Bagwell, Oakland: Story of a City, pp. 85-89;
Lawrence
Lonnie
Crouchette,
ward Tomorrow: A History
III, and Martha
Bunch,
K. Winnacker,
Visions
of the East Bay Afro-American Community
To
1852-1977
(Oakland, 1989).
16. Blutza,
Oakland's
17. Observer,
and
Progressives
Plans,
Manager
18. Blutza,
and Council-Manager
Commission
5 February
the Poor,
pp.
1921, 30 April
55-56;
1921,
Plans,
17 March
Blutza,
Oakland's
and
Council-Manager
pp. 210-212.
Commission
Oakland's
164-174.
pp.
1923; also May,
Commission
Plans,
and Council
pp.
208-209;
Observer, 29 January 1921; Alameda County Union Labor Record, 9March 1923.
19. "Alameda County Federation Stands for Good Government," Alameda County
Politics and Government Pamphlet File, Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley. President of the Federation was R. H. Marchant, president and general
manager of theMarchant Calculating Machine Company; and its Executive Com
mittee
was
Chair
John
L. Howard,
vice
of
president
the Chamber
of Commerce.
Polk's Oakland City Directory (Oakland, 1918).
20. James Timberlake, Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, 1900-1920
(Cambridge, Mass., 1963). In 1910, 37 percent of Oakland voters had favored a dry
amendment to the city charter (the neighboring town of Berkeley was already dry),
well before the 18thAmendment took effect in 1920. Oakland City Clerk, Elections
1852 to the Present, (Oakland, 1988), p. 18.
21. Crusader, (Oakland), November 1921, 2.
22. Fred Hunter, "Oakland Has Started the Second Largest School Building
Campaign in the United States," Oakland Tribune Yearbook (Oakland, 1920), p.
98; Oakland Tribune Yearbook (Oakland, 1921), p. 117.
23. Observer, 2 December 1922. In 1910 the East Oakland 7th Ward voted 44
percent in favor of a city charter amendment to ban saloons in residential neighbor
hoods, compared to 22 and 9 percent, respectively, in the machine's West Oakland
4th and 6th Wards. Only the North Oakland 1stWard, bordering on dry Berkeley,
gave a higher share (46 percent) for the amendment. Blutza, Oakland's Commission
and
Plans,
Council-Manager
pp.
Parts
185-186.
of East
Oakland
remained
loosely under the authority of city hall: In 1921, residents of the Dimond
own
formed
their
political
broadside
and
force,
police
vigilante
"Free Press" was
reportedly
his home on 93rd Avenue
1922.
the
following
tarred and
only
district
the editor
of the
year
near
feathered
by a mob
1921; Western Appeal, 22
in Elmhurst. Observer, 2 April
April
24.
After
boomed
land
from
combined.
years
of
shortages
housing
during
the war,
residential
construction
in the early twenties: 12,823 new single family houses were built in Oak
1921-1924,
According
more
than
to estimates,
a 50 percent
nearly
85
increase
over
percent
of
ten years
the previous
were
new
homes
these
located in East Oakland. Harry Lafler, "Oakland and Eastbay Cities Maintain Proud
53
Rhomberg
Rank of Pacific Coast Industrial Center," Oakland Tribune Yearbook (Oakland,
1925) p. 10; U.S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States.
1920, Vol. I, Population (Washington, D.C., 1921), p. 353, Seventeenth Census of
the United States, 1950, Population, Vol. II, Part 5: California (Washington, D.C.,
1952) pp. 5-13.
25. Oakland Post-Enquirer, 24 April 1924, San Francisco Examiner, 25 April
1924; Oakland Daily Record, 2 May 1925; Joseph Baker, Past and Present of
Alameda County, California, vol. 2 (Chicago, 1914), p. 19; Blutza, Oakland's
and Council-Manager
Commission
p. 53.
Plans,
26. Oakland Daily Record, 18December 1924; 4, 7 February 1925.
27. San Francisco Chronicle, 12August 1921; 11, 15May 1922.
28. San Francisco Chronicle, 4, 12March 1922.
29. Jackson, Ku Klux Klan in the City, p. 190; Oakland Post-Enquirer,
1922; Oakland Tribune, 9, 25 May 1922.
30.
Hooded
Chalmers,
Americanism,
5 May
122.
p.
31. Observer, 9 September; 21, 28 October; 4 November 1922.
32. Oscar Jahnsen, "Enforcing the Law against Gambling, Bootlegging, Graft,
Fraud, and Subversion," an oral history conducted by Alice King andMiriam Stein,
1970, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley, 1976, pp. 36-37.
33. Knights of theKu Klux Klan, Inc., v. East Bay Club of Alameda County, et
al, civil case file #82470, Cal. Superior Ct. Alameda County, 1925; Oakland City
Clerk, Elections 1852 to thePresent, (Oakland, 1988), p. 32.
34.
Knights
of
the Ku Klux
Klan,
v. Leon
Inc,.
et al.',
C. Francis,
case
civil
#81245, Cal. Super. Ct., Alameda County, 1925; Oakland Post-Enquirer,
June 1924. San Francisco Chronicle, 5 July 1924.
35.
Knights
of
the Ku
Klux
v.
Inc.,
Klan,
Leon
C.
Francis,
et
al,
file
19, 23
case
file
#81118; Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., v. Leon C. Francis, et al, case file
#82491, W. F. Courtney, et al, v. John L. McVey, et al, case file #82948, Civil
Division, Cal. Super. Ct., Alameda County, 1925; EliJ. Coon, et al, v. Fidelity and
Deposit Company ofMaryland, Inc., case file #101707, Civil Division, Cal. Super.
Alameda
Ct.,
County,
Eli
1928;
J.
et al,
Coon,
v. H.
Sephton,
et
al,
case
file
#107549, Civil Division, Cal. Super. Ct., Alameda County, 1929; California v.
Parker, et al, case file #11369, Criminal Division, Cal. Super. Ct., Alameda County,
1930; Folk's Oakland City Directory (Oakland, 1924, 1925, 1929, 1930); Oakland
Daily Record, 17 January 1925.
36. East Oakland is defined here as the pre-1910 charter 7th ward, including the
annexed territories east of Lake Merritt. North Oakland comprises the old 1stward
bordering on the Berkeley line, including Rockridge. West Oakland includes the
3rd, 4th, and
street
to the
2nd,
36th
6th wards,
estuary.
from
Blutza,
the western
Oakland's
waterfront
Commission
to downtown
and
and
from
Council-Manager
Plans, pp. 502-504; J. H. MacDonald and Company, Map of the City of Oakland
(Oakland, 1900) Earth Sciences and Map Library, University of California, Berke
ley.
37. See Lay, Hooded Knights on theNiagara;
38.
Ku
Klux
Klan
v. Francis,
et al,,
case
file
pp. 102-105.
#81245;
Coon,
et al,
v. Sephton.
et al
case file #81245;
et al,
Ku Klux
Inc., v. Francis,
Klan,
were
The purposes
of the California
Club.
organization
as "1) To promote
of the Caucasian
the welfare
papers
39. Ku Klux
v. East
Bay
incorporation
teach the doctrine of white
Klan,
stated
race
Inc.,
in its
and
to
supremacy, 2) To promote the doctrines and tenets of
54 Journal of American
/Winter
Ethnic History
1998
Protestant Christianity, 3) To promote and maintain the purity of white blood, and
4) To promote, develop, and safeguard the ideals of American citizens and the high
standards in social and political relations, including the rightful use of ballots and
of
the enforcement
law by
regular
constituted
San Francisco
authorities."
Chronicle,
12August 1924.
40. Oakland Tribune, 24 August 1925.
41. Oakland Daily Record, 24 January, 19 May 1925; Oakland Tribune, 18
May 1925.
42. Ku Klux Klan, Inc., v. East Bay Club; Frank C. Merritt, History of Alameda
County, (Chicago, 1928), pp. 102-103.
43. MacLafferty, Jr.,was chaplain of Klan No. 9 and of the East Bay Club until
18 May 1925. Brooks was appointed secretary of Klan No. 9 in 1925, while
on
served
MacGregor
the executive
committee
as chair
and
of
the auditing
commit
tee. Both men acted as verification deputies for the petition drive. The petition itself
accused Baccus of corruption, negligence, and having "used intoxicating liquors to
excess." Oakland Daily Record, 17 December 1924, 17, 22 January, 25 February
1925; Ku Klux
Klan,
Inc.,
v. East
Bay
Club;
et al
Courtney,
et al, v. Sephton, et al; City Clerk's Office,
v. McVey,
et al;
Coon,
1925 Election Files, Oakland, Califor
nia.
44. Ku Klux Klan, Inc., v. East Bay Club; City Clerk's Office, 1923 election
files, Oakland, California; Oakland Daily Record, 18, 20 April 1925.
45. Oakland Tribune, 4 December 1924.
46. Merritt, History of Alameda County, pp. 517-518. Dimond News, 23 March
1923; 29 January 1926; Oakland Daily Record, 20 July 1925.
47. Merritt, History of Alameda County, pp. 218-221; Observer, 15, 29 July
1 September
1922; Oakland Tribune, 30 August 1922; Oakland Post-Enquirer,
1922.
48.
A
law
fellow
official
enforcement
recalled,
"Frank
Barnet
was
very
liberal.
He'd sit down and drink during Prohibition. He was what a lot of people would call
a regular guy. He didn't think anything of prostitutes and open gambling operating.
He believed you needed those!" [Interviewer: "That's life, huh?"] "Yes. You needed
a common
see. It was
these places
belief
that if you close
up, you'll
this, you
on your hands. Well,
that's what many
lot of rape cases
thought."
people
a short, stocky-built
a very generous
sort of person.
He was
was
man?always
have
a
"Barnet
wore
a big diamond stud and a big diamond ring, and smoked a cigar, and very worldly
sort of
fella.
He
just
couldn't
see
anything
wrong
in the bootlegging
business.
..."
Jahnsen oral history, pp. 34, 38.
49.
Parker
had
also managed
Becker's
1926
campaign.
Earl Warren,
The Mem
oirs of Earl Warren, (New York, 1977), pp. 83-85; Mary Shaw, "Perspectives of a
an oral history conducted in 1970 by Miriam Feingold, in
Newspaperwoman,"
Perspectives on the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, Regional Oral His
tory Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1972, pp. 12-15;
1926, 20
Observer, 6 March 1926; Oakland Tribune, 24 August, 4 November
February 1927; Merritt, History of Alameda County, pp. 102, 517-518.
50. Oakland Tribune, 3 April 1927.
51. Oakland Times, 9May 1927; Observer, 24 May 1930.
11 February 1930; Oakland Tribune, 31 October
52. Oakland Post-Enquirer,
1927.
53.
According
to the
trial
summary,
when
Norman
proposed
the paving
deal,
"Parker said that he was glad Norman had it; that he was not in office for his health;
that if Norman and Garbutt expected to lay vibrolithic pavement in the City of
Rhomberg
55
Oakland they would have to pay; that he was getting one cent per sq. ft. from the
Black Top people; that since Norman and Garbutt had supported him in his cam
paign and done a lot of work for him around the City Hall he would make it one
half cent per sq. ft. for them." California v. Garbutt, case file No. 11369, California
v. Parker, case file No. 11399, Criminal Division, Cal. Super. Ct., Alameda County,
1930.
54. Warren, Memoirs, pp. 86ff; California v. Becker, case file no. 11359, Cali
fornia v. Ormsby, case file no. 11359, California v. Shurtleff, case file 11360,
Criminal Division, Cal. Super. Ct., Alameda County, 1930.
55.
Blutza,
Oakland's
Commission
and
Council-Manager
Plans,
pp.
Oakland's
Commission
and
Council-Manager
Plans,
p.
227,
235,
247-257.
56.
Blutza,
ren, Memoirs,
57. Warren
pp. 99-100.
himself
endorsed
tion, declaring "the commission
Commission
58.
Blutza,
the manager
amendments
form of government
262;
in the November
War
elec
is a failure," Blutza, Oakland's
and
Plans,
pp. 288, 356-357.
Council-Manager
Oakland's
Commission
and Council-Manager
Plans,
pp.
265,
278,
355; San Francisco Chronicle, 20 March 1930. InMarch, the Lions Club passed a
resolution thanking the Tribune for its "articles and forceful editorials" in favor of
themanager reform. Oakland Tribune, 28 March; 16, 23 October 1930.
59. The Citizens' Freeholder Committee included representatives from the Ital
ian American Federation, theWestern Waterfront Industries Association, and Cen
tral Labor Council, whose secretary, William Spooner, chaired the committee. The
League
Council-Manager
concentrate
but
instead
Council-Manager
60. Blutza,
Plans,
Oakland's
chose
on
the
not
to run candidates
amendments.
pp. 282-285.
Commission
and
Blutza,
the Freeholders'
against
Oakland's
Commission
Council-Manager
Plans,
pp.
slate,
and
290-308;
St. Sure oral history, pp. 359-363; John Gothberg, (1968) "The Local Influence of
J.R. Knowland's Oakland Tribune," Journalism Quarterly, 43, #3, (Autumn, 1968):
487-95.

The 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Oakland, California

Transcription

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